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HISTORY OF THE SYLVANIA By Alfred Nuñez Jr. Additional material by Niels Arne Dam, Timothy Eccles, Anthony Ragan, and Ryan Wileman Before Sigmar The Fennones were a small tribe that settled in the regions that would become Ostermark, Sylvania, and eastern Stirland. The eastern tribal lands were as inhospitable then as they are in the early 26th century. The northern portions were blanketed by the Great Forest and the western tribal lands moderately fertile. The Fennones eked out a sorry existence there, especially with some much of the forest and eastern mountains teeming with goblins and other more sinister creatures. Trade with the neighbouring tribes was limited as the Fennones had little to offer. Despite the nearness of Zhufbar, the Fennones avoided contact with the Dwarfs. Some believe that this was due to the fact that the Fennones traded with the nearby goblin tribes, while others suggest something more disturbing. The Fennones worshipped a harsher version of the Old Faith than that practiced elsewhere in the land that became the Empire. As part of their beliefs, the dead of the Fennones were buried in the various bogs, moors and fens that were common throughout their land. This burial practice has remained intact through the present day. More information on the Fennone tribe can be found in the “Nine Tribes” article by Tim Eccles and Ryan Wileman in Warpstone 17. Drannus and the Coming of Sigmar Raids by Goblins against the Fennones began to grow as more bands of Orcs entered the lands through Black Fire Pass, especially in the years following the improbable rescue of Dwarf High King Kargan. Drannus, tribal chieftain, led his warriors against the treacherous greenskins in one engagement after another. At about this time, an emissary from the Unberogen chieftain, Sigmar, approached Drannus with an offer of friendship and support if he agreed to ally his tribe with the others against the greenskins. Drannus, immediately joined seeing an opportunity to better the lot of his tribe, and himself Some later, more cynical, historians have suggested that Drannus’ decision had more to do with the fear of what would happen to him should Sigmar consider the Fenonne as confederates of the greenskins. The only real decision for Drannus was to throw his lot in with the Unberogen leader to avoid the later extermination of his tribe. The war was tenacious with no quarter given or asked, it was a war of survival. With the aid of the Dwarfs, Sigmar’s mighty host obliterated the Orc and Goblin horde at the climatic Battle of Black Fire Pass. The victorious tribal chieftains realized that their people could not be safe unless the tribes remained united. So, they met in Great Council in Reikdorf for many days deciding the future. In the end, they elected Sigmar Heldenhammer as Emperor, who was then crowned by the High Priest of Ulric. One of Sigmar’s first acts was to hold a council with the chieftains led their tribes in battle in order to reach an agreement to demarcate tribal boundaries to limit inter-tribal disputes. The lands along the eastern reaches of the River Stir and south to Aver Reach were designated as the homeland of the Fennone tribe. Drannus founded the town of Buchebad, near the western border of his lands, as his capital. Drannus also rewarded his war chiefs with lands in the western part of his realm as well. To maintain his claims in the east, however, Drannus “freed” his slaves and settled them in those poor lands. Drannus elevated the warriors who provided him great service to the lords of the eastern lands. Drannus lived a long, but pitiful life. Soon after the Great Council, Drannus' sons rebelled against him citing the pathetic lands allocated to their tribe as a sign of Drannus' weakness. The Fennone chief was able to kill several of his sons, but the eldest two were too much for him. They captured their father and proceeded to shatter his leg bones and blind him. Drannus was allowed to live in this wretched state for the remainder of his years. Fraomar, the eldest of the two took the western lands (Langwald) as his own, while Cuthwine the Grim was left with the eastern lands (Sylvania). A latter war between the brothers brought the two lands together for a short time. Strife and the Age of Wars Religious Oppression Soon after his ascension as Primate (Grand Theogonist) of Sigmar, Kazgar I began a process of gathering evidence that supported allegations that practitioners of the Old Faith partook in “unwholesome rituals of worship,” including human sacrifice and “wanton immorality.” When he gathered sufficient proof, Kazgar I met with the Ar-Ulric, several elders of the Taal faith, and the High Priest of the Mórr cult in Nuln to call for the salvation of the souls of the duped followers of the Old Faith and the suppression of that tainted belief. The War of Cleansing took place chiefly in the eastern Empire where the Old Faith was the strongest. A number of Druidic priests were forced to renounce their evil beliefs and convert at the point of the sword to one of the “sanctioned” cults. Many refuse to do so and were consigned to the flames while others fled into the wilderness. In Sylvania, many died trying to protect their faith, others claimed to follow the goddess Rhya, though they preferred to refer to her by her local name of Gurheid. Though there were some deviations from the normal rituals, these ceremonies were close enough to satisfy the “Purgers of the False Faith” (as the sanctioned hunters of the Old Faith styled themselves). In their obsession with destruction, the Purgers never realised that the worship of Gurheid was a darker, more malevolent deviation of that normally associated with Rhya. In fact, the cult was more vengeful than the variant of the Old Faith that had been previous practiced by the Fennone tribe. Some later religious historians would advance the theory that the cult of Gurheid was actually nothing more than a cover for the Old Faith derivative originally followed by the Fennone. Moreover, this War of Cleansing made the local people more obsessed with the power of death and, thus, opened the door to the worship of Kháine. The Deadly Black Plague Baron Frederick van Hal came to power in Sylvania as a reward for rooting out diabolical wizards in the eastern Empire in concert with Emperor Boris Goldbringer’s efforts to suppress the sorcerous arts. Baron van Hal’s ambitions were just being realised when the outbreak of the Black Plague commenced simultaneously in the western cities. The plague spread quickly eastward and devastated the population of Sylvania. Corpses remained where they perished as those still living struggled to survive. The Skaven seeming erupted from the forest and hidden lairs throughout the eastern Empire, enslaving the living and destroying villages. Baron van Hal had no intention of allowing these overgrown rodents to disrupt his plans so close to fruition. He was forced to reveal himself as a Necromancer and raised the Dead to fight the invading vermin. The battles between the Undead and Skaven further decimated Sylvania and weakened both opponents. By this time, word of the devastation of the land and peasants reached the Imperial nobility. Led by Grand Prince Mandred von Schilderland of the Reikland, an Imperial host marched through Stirland towards the war in the east. Ravaged by disease and suffering great losses, the Skaven forces were systematically destroyed by Mandred’s army in Stirland. Victorious, yet weakened, Mandred’s army engaged Vanhal’s (as the infamous Necromancer was called) army in the Stirlander barony of Langwald in an indecisive battle. Vanhal’s forces were too many and the Imperial force could not muster an effective counter to the Necromancer’s power, so complete was the late Emperor Boris’ folly in eliminating sorcery from the Empire. Mandred decided that the remaining Skaven forces in the Great Forest represented the greater danger and crossed the River Stir, leaving a small, defensive force to watch the Sylvanian frontier. By the time that the last of the Skaven were slain, Mandred received word that Vanhal had been assassinated and his Undead army crumbled into dust. Taking little chance, Mandred reached an agreement with the cult of Mórr to send their Raven Knights to cleanse Sylvania of the taint of Necromancy. Mandred then returned west to proclaim that the abominations known as the Skaven had been utterly destroyed. Mandred elevated the status of the province from a Barony to a County when he promoted the ill-fated Baron Theophilus von Stirfähre as Count of Sylvania, successor to the cursed Vanhal. After a reign of 20 years, Count von Stirfähre lost his way during a hunt in Hunger Wood. His mutilated corpse was found days later near the River Stir. Age of Wars The end of Emperor Mandred’s reign plunged the Empire into an age of utter anarchy. Sylvania was reduced to minor holdings of nobles constantly vying against one another for advantage. Weather also betrayed the land and drought became commonplace. With so little intrinsic value, poor soil and resources, none of the powerful nobles in the surrounding provinces took any interest in Sylvania. The first family to rise from the ashes were the von Teufelheims, a murderous and depraved family from the eastern part of the county. For decades the peasants and lesser nobles suffered grievously from the von Teufelheim rule. Many young men and women disappeared. Some were simply ravished and returned to their villages broken in both body and spirit, others died while fulfilling whatever decadent need the ruling family desired. In time, a Peasant Revolt erupted and the family and their noble allies, few as they were, were annihilated. More information on the von Teufelheim family can be found in the adventure scenario “Conspiracy in Marienburg,” which is slated to appear in a forthcoming issue of Warpstone. Anarchy continued in Sylvania for the next century. The next prominent family to gather enough power to rule Sylvania was the von Draks. The first of these new Counts, Ludwig von Drak, was a capable and strong ruler. He declared Sylvania neutral in the conflict that arose when Ottilia of Talabecland declared herself Empress. The isolated location of the Count’s dominion allowed Sylvania to remain relatively unscathed from the wars in the west and north. This provided the von Draks to secure their hold on Sylvania for generations. The Coming of the Vampire Counts The von Draks ruled Sylvania for nearly 350 years, marking them as one of the longest ruling families of their time. Unfortunately, each generation of von Draks proved to be of lesser ability and more decadent than the preceding one. Otto was the last of the von Drak Counts, a thoroughly corrupt and predatory man whose atrocities became known throughout Stirland and Ostermark. His only surviving daughter married the mysterious Vlad von Carstein, ushering in the bloodiest period of war, tyranny, degeneracy and death that the Empire had ever seen. Sylvania was ignored outside its borders for the first 200 years of von Carstein’s reign, much as it was during the von Drak regime. The destruction of Mordheim across the River Stir provided von Carstein with the opportunity to gather more power in the form of the remnants of the meteor that fell upon the Ostermarker city. The shards were then called Wyrdstone and reputed to have magical properties. The destruction of Mordheim also removed a potential enemy in the Sisters of Sigmar with their powers of augury. For ten years Count von Carstein bided his time as fortune hunters and mercenaries from all over the Empire and beyond swarmed over the ruins in search of wealth and power. With an Undead army at his command, von Carstein led his forces across the ford at Essenfurt and overwhelmed Mordheim and the surrounding mercenary villages from the east. Those that perished soon augmented von Carstein’s army. The destruction of the ruined city marked the beginning of the Vampire Wars. The full story of the Vampire Wars and the von Carsteins bloodlines can be found elsewhere in this issue of Strike-to-Stun. This black period of history lasted 135 years and ended in a marshy place called Hel Fenn. The wars of the von Carsteins plunged the Empire to a depth of destitution that exceeded anything since the Black Plague of 1111 I.C. A large portion of the population was lost and famine raged across the land for years. The Chaos Incursion With the death of the Vampire Counts, Sylvania slid back into the recesses of the Empire. Rebuilding continued at a very slow pace as the land and peasants were destitute. The Grand Count of Stirland even shunned the lands he claimed after Mannfred von Carstein’s demise. As is their lot in life, the Sylvanians continued to scratch a living, no mater how miserable when compared to other parts of the Empire. Raven Knights scoured the countryside in periodic raids, sometimes with other Knightly Orders (such as the Fiery Heart), to cleanse it of the corruption of the von Carsteins. Many foul creatures were killed and their patrons burned at the stake. The struggle of the numerous pretender Emperors continued apace, though no one seemed to pay Sylvania any attention. Then the world changed again. This time the enemy came from the north, not Sylvania. Chaos erupted from the forests and lands across the River Lynsk in Kislev. Count von Essen was eager to show Sylvania’s meddle before the rest of the Empire and quickly raised a levy of peasants, led by his retinue and any mercenary who would join him, and marched through Ostermark to Kislev. Had he waited to co-ordinate his attack with Magnus the Pious as the forces of Ostermark and other eastern provinces had done, Count von Essen might have enjoyed the fruits of victory. Instead, his arrival in Kislev was ill-timed, as far as his fate and those of his men were concerned. They were massacred within sight of the besieged city of Kislev to a man. The only procession that the head of Count von Essen would lead would be at the end of a pike bearing the Champion’s standard. The Great War against Chaos without further participation from Sylvania. Once again, the Grand Count of Stirland had to repopulate the Sylvanian nobility with second (sometimes third) sons of prominent Stirlander nobility and qualified members of his own retinue. In this case, General Frederick Schliemann, one of the heroes in the Battle of Kislev, was elevated to Count of Sylvania and took the name von Walden to mark his ascension. Sylvania Today Since the time of Magnus, Sylvania continues to be plagued by the remnants of the corrupting forces that once ruled the fearful land. The oppressive environment continues to play havoc upon its populace as well as the ruling class. Depravity of certain members of Sylvanian nobility arises from time to time, though not to the magnitude of the past. One of the more recent examples surrounds the mystery of Baron Karsten von Walden. In one of the private feuds so common to nobility, Baron von Walden sought satisfaction from a rival who won over a young nobleman’s daughter that he fancied. According to rumours that circulated at that time, von Walden made a pact with dark forces to undermine the outer walls of Castle Siegfried so that he could kill his rival and take the woman so rightfully his. Once the deed was accomplished and the Baron’s goal realised, Karsten von Walden reneged on his part of the foul bargain. The dark forces stole all the children of Waldendorf during festivities marking Geheimnisnacht and left evidence implicating Baron von Walden. The Baron did not have a chance to rebut the evidence as a grieving mob captured him as he tried to find sanctuary in a Temple of Sigmar. The Baron was quickly lynched before his father could intervene. Since the ascension of Emperor Luitpold, father of Karl-Franz I, malevolent forces seem to be rising in Sylvania. Unexplained incidents and mysterious deaths seem to be occurring more frequently. The Mórrian priests and templars who maintain vigilance over Sylvania have reported experiencing an increase of disturbing dreams to their superiors in Nuln. Moreover, the superstitious peasants claim that there is an increase of fell creatures in the numerous dark woods and mist-enshrouded moors that dot the County, as well as the disappearance of loved ones. Rumours of werewolves, ghouls, and worse are reaching the ears of wary roadwardens, constables and town militias. Many now avoid being abroad at night for fear that they will not survive to see the dawn. Outsiders visiting Sylvania are viewed by the common folk with suspicion. A wise traveller should keep their wits about them as the peasants wouldn’t think twice about taking advantage of a stranger’s ignorance. A number of recent foreigners, including some pedlars, have vanished without a trace in the wilds of this foreboding country.